Her Place
by Gunwild
Summary: Toph & Sokka:  Toph's being sent off to school and it's on Sokka to take her there. Of course, these things can't always go as planned.


Avatar: The Last Airbender

Extra Chapter: "Her Place"

"I hate it."

_Of course she does._ "Look, you'll get used to it."

"I don't want to get used to it." Toph crossed her arms and grimaced. A normal girl her age might have pouted or whined, but, being the world's best earthbender, she wasn't normal and wasn't prone to acting childish. In fact, seeing her surrounded by average-looking kids who'd never wrestled a giant siege drill or caused a landslide made the difference more obvious. "I want to turn it to rubble and walk away laughing."

"It's just a school. It's not going to hurt you."

"I was suggesting that I was going to hurt i it /i . I'm supposed to live here?! Me?!" She beat a fist on her chest and pointed at Sokka's face without turning at him. "You know this kind of place isn't made for people like you or me! You know that!"

He hardly saw how he fit into the statement, but tried to put it out of mind. He couldn't expect her to be rational right now, when her journey with her friends was coming to an end. It didn't make him happy, either, but at least it was a safe way to finish things. Nobody had wound up dead.

The students were moving off to class and a bell was ringing in a handsome stone tower. Some colorful birds milled around in the nearby garden. "Look, this is a nice place. Your parents think it's what's best, and you could at least see what it has to offer before you say it's no good. For them."

"My parents think what's best is keeping me behind walls like a pet." Toph gritted her teeth, but led him through the gates towards the main building. He had to hurry to keep up, and noticed there were conspicuous cracks in the flagstones after she stepped on them.

"The kids seem okay with it," he noted. This wasn't strictly true - some of the students didn't appear to be happy to be going where they were, but then, most were excitedly staring at the two visitors. One of them had whitish eyes and the other was carrying a sword, after all. He got the impression that this counted as an exciting break in routine for them. _That's a little sad._

The open doors brought them into a high hall. A main staircase had banners hung over it that carried the school symbol and virtues that a scholar should have: 'Integrity.' 'Dignity.' 'Industriousness.' 'Tenacity.' He tried not to look too hard at the one that said 'Foresight.'

"Ah-h-h-h, Miss Bei Fong." There was a man waiting for them. He had a long face and a longer robe. With an ostentatious lift of his hands, he bowed to them, which they didn't do back. "We've been waiting."

"I don't notice anyone _else_ here," Toph mumbled such that only Sokka could hear it.

Continuing to talk about himself in the plural, the man gestured about. "We of this academy delight in challenges." Then he gestured to himself. "Teaching someone with your unique problems will be the most exciting endeavor I've yet faced in my tenure as dean. Now, your first day will begin with a tour. You may leave your servant."

Servant? Oh. He means me.

"He's not my servant. He's here to watch out for me."

"Watch...?" The dean nodded a moment later. "Ah, your eyes, that's right. Follow me, please!"

"All students are required to wear our uniform. If you would show us how it looks, child?"

"Oof!" She stumbled out of the changing room, almost falling over. Sokka's arm shot out to grab her, and she gripped it to find some kind of balance. Toph looked... well, 'cute' would have been the word he'd used, if he'd been speaking instead of thinking and Toph hadn't been there to listen. The paired hair buns were a nice touch. Still, it wasn't the kind of thing she'd have chosen to put on. "I don't think I can wear these shoes."

"The clogs are traditional and mandatory. The same goes for your dress, gloves and hair. At first they may cause you trouble, but in time..."

"No, I mean they're made of wood so I can't see. And I think they're too small." Her ankles were bent as though she'd curled her toes to the extreme. It looked unbelievably uncomfortable.

"Ah, but the size forces the feet to grow in a more aesthetically pleasing fashion. The hard construction assures proper weight distribution. I'm sure you'll become used to it in due course, at most a matter of weeks. We can't make exceptions." The dean pointed at the door. "This way, girl. Remain the appropriate three steps behind me to the best of your ability."

They followed him, Toph unable to take one step without wobbling. It was easier when she held Sokka's arm, so he let her do that.

"We offer the finest boarding education in the Earth Kingdom. The adjoining campuses provide schooling for pupils aged two through twenty, many of whom are so well taken care of that they never attend another institution. In fact, with our comprehensive services it is safe to say that they need never leave here from the time their schooling begins until they graduate." There was a door to a small stairwell. He did not hold it open for them as he passed through. Almost immediately they were in a library that spiraled upwards with the stairs, with books running up to a far-off ceiling. One merely needed to reach out and take one.

Sokka was impressed - but he knew this couldn't mean much to Toph. She couldn't read.

"You may be read to, though that will require plenty of memorization on your part. We will not pretend that our curriculum is easily endured. It has broken more than one student. However, with time and the ethics that will be instilled in you, you can overcome obstacles you would once have thought insurmountable. You need not worry about making something of yourself - we will make something of you. All we require is compliance."

Toph was biting the inside of her cheek with every step they climbed. He'd seen her do this before as a way to mask pain. Her feet (which were used to striking rough surfaces, but not to being crushed in place) were obviously killing her. After this tour he would make sure she got some kind of break, and then some bigger shoes. This much pain had to be a mistake.

They exited that stairwell and turned down a hall lined by ink portraits. They were all of old, grumpy-looking men who seemed to Sokka like they disapproved of everyone who walked by. He had an irrational notion that it would be best to tuck in his shirt before they scolded him.

"Now, we take great pride in adhering to proper social graces here, as well. Fully half a normal day is spent working at the arts of prudence and courtliness.

Building individuals of exacting taste and couth is our primary concern - especially in the case of ladies, who carry the responsibility of finding suitable husbands who will approve of them." They passed a hall in which boys and girls were doing carefully-timed dance steps, though no music was playing. After that came a room in which young women about Sokka's age were seated at desks with mirrors built into them, applying frighteningly white makeup.

"I thought that was up to me and my family," Toph said halfheartedly, like she knew she wouldn't be happy with the response she got.

"It's 'my family and I,' child. And you will find that no man will display an interest in a lady who cannot serve his societal needs. Your future is of inestimable importance to every member of this school's staff, as it should be to you. Don't you desire success? To _do_ something with your life?"

Sokka's mouth opened to retaliate, say that she _had _done things, great things, more than this jerk would ever do - but he held it in. This was her school. This was how her family wanted her raised, and he didn't have a right to go against that - or a right to foul up his friend's first day by offending the dean.

Toph didn't talk after that. They were brought past a room where almost a hundred young people were repeatedly copying mathematical formulae from a board to know them 'as if it were the most natural thing in the world.' In another room they were shown a teacher explaining poetry to his charges, though Sokka didn't think he was doing a very good job of it. He seemed not to realize that the piece was about unrequited love and kept implying that it was literally about flowers not being able to get any sun. He went on for a while about how this was an example of the significance of 'keeping things in their just and proper place.' At least one student appeared dissatisfied with that take, but he was too busy jotting down notes from the chalkboard to say anything.

The music room was a touch better, until it became obvious that what Sokka had taken for scales being played were actually supposed to be a song. It was so predictable and so lifeless that he found himself getting a headache. Toph actually covered her extra-sensitive ears. They'd heard funeral dirges played with more gusto.

Children sat in the cavernous dining room, even though it wasn't mealtime. They were practicing table manners, including where it was acceptable to place one's drink and how long to wait between bites of different kinds of meat. They were using their sticks on imaginary food, too, and pantomiming chewing the allotted number of times.

Last was the exercise yard, where - still in full uniform - these privileged youths were made to play 'gentlemanly' games and compete. Sokka didn't spot anything like a playground, even though there were boys and girls as young as four being coached on the right way to run.

Standing near the gate they'd come in first, in the shadow of the cleanly-cut perimeter wall, the dean bowed again. "I trust you're pleased to be a part of what we are doing here. Your bright future begins today. I can show you to your first class."

"I see." Toph was holding something in her hand. It was the folded-up letter from her parents - the one that had instructed her to report to school now that she didn't have other things preoccupying her. It was squeezed so tight that she'd crumpled it. She pointed at Sokka. "Could he and I have a moment to speak? Quickly?"

"Yes. However, timeliness is something you'll have to work on," the dean said in a voice of deep disapproval. Sokka had the feeling that if he hadn't been there he'd have chastised Toph more severely.

The old guy trotted off a few steps and watched the students being run in circles. Toph let go of Sokka's arm and promptly began to tip over, but steadied herself. "I guess I have to go. Thanks for bringing me. I know you'd rather be doing important stuff with Aang and Katara."

"No, I wouldn't rather be doing important stuff." This wasn't a lie, it had just come out wrong. "I mean... you're important, too. You're our friend."

"Do you think this is a good idea?" She turned her face to his, to hear him better. He almost couldn't look at her. She already had a complexion far more tired and pale than when they'd arrived. Evidently she'd resigned herself to this, more or less, and that wasn't something he was used to seeing her do.

"I'm your friend, but your parents are your family. They're the only one you've got. If this is what they think is right, then... that is, I wouldn't disobey what my father told me to do. At least, I wouldn't have when I was your age."

Toph turned away. "You're right. It doesn't matter where I've been all this time. I'm still a kid." Her head was partially hung down, but since her hair wasn't loose it didn't hide her face and he could see her expression. She didn't seem to realize this. Sokka stepped around her to get a better look.

"Toph, are you crying?"

Her voice didn't shake. It just sank low with disappointment. "Go away, Sokka. I don't want you to see me like this." As she shut her eyes, the first tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away as fast as she could. It dripped off her hand and landed on one of those torturous wooden shoes.

He stared at it.

In the space between the sole and toe was a seam where it had been nailed together. Below that was a dull red stain, still somewhat wet. Sokka looked around. The other girls nearby had that same stain of color on the front of their clogs, but he was sure it had not been on Toph's at the start of the tour. His guts twisted around in rage and he felt guilt pressing down on his back.

Her toes, the ones she stretched and cleaned and happily ground in the dirt so often, were bleeding.

As so often happened when he felt like he'd screwed up, Sokka's mind taunted him. You're going to let this happen to her, even though she's always been a good friend? What kind of friend does that make you, though? You going to leave her here and tell her that it's right, Sokka?

The dean was already walking back over, tired of waiting. He'd pulled a scroll from one of his wide, formal sleeves. He thrust it at Sokka, actually poking him in the shoulder to get his attention. "I also must have a signature for transfer from the student's caretaker. I trust you possess the authority and ability to..."

As fast as he knew how, Sokka drew his sword and cut the scroll in half. He did it with enough speed that the wax of the seal didn't just crack, it split. The dean was flabbergasted. "What do you mean by-"

Sokka smacked the rest of the scroll away with his free hand. "Save it, you freak." Feeling especially theatrical, he stepped on the ruined papers. "I'm keeping her."

It might have been out of bravery or arrogance, but the dean did not back down right away. "The girl's parents have already enrolled her. You have no right to take her away from a chance to be someone." He was folding his robes against each other out of irritation, maybe trying to make himself look bigger than he was. The repeated flapping noise reminded Sokka of a preening bird.

"She's already _someone,_" he stated firmly. "She's the toughest, bravest fighter I know, and I know a world's worth. She's someone great, and if you can't see that you... you don't know a thing that matters." With that, he began to turn away, breathing hard and puffed up with rage.

But as an afterthought, he spun around and used some prods with the sword to pop off the dean's fancy golden buckles without actually touching his body. From the way the students laughed, they wouldn't be looking at him again without remembering the sight of him frantically trying to cover his shame. He returned the blade to its sheath with the feeling of another job well done, although he knew his face was probably red. Once again, he'd made a scene. It was like some compulsion with him. Why couldn't he just be low-profile for once? _I guess that's not who I am. Toph, either. Maybe that's what she meant when she said we're alike._

He grabbed Toph's hand and pulled. Her feet had left the bad shoes, but still appeared hurt, so he yanked her partway onto his back to carry her off, and quick. There was no point in looking back, not even long after he knew the school and the town next to it were well behind them.

"I think you just kidnapped me," she chided, unable to keep the amusement - and relief - out of her voice.

"I know," he groaned, feeling like an idiot for being so dramatic. "Why'd you have to cry? I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't cried."

"I wasn't crying. I just got something in my eye. And my feet were bothering me."

"Okay." He was willing to go along with that. Maybe someday she'd return the favor and help him when he was powerless - which would probably happen sooner than later. He wasn't the one who could trigger earthquakes by stretching his calf muscles, after all.

"You can put me down, though. I think we're far enough away and I wanna feel the dirt." Toph hopped off of him and flinched when her toes hit the ground, but when she sat in the emerald grass and gripped a handful of soil she appeared happier, rubbing it in her palm since she couldn't examine it with blind eyes.

He stood by, watching, wondering at the strange events that had put them in company. Aang and his sister would certainly be happy she'd stay with them, though his own actions would take some explaining. Plus, there was the big question. "Well, now you're a runaway again. What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know yet, actually." She grinned at him, then laughed. "But we can always go learn."

Written (in a hurry) by Gunwild

Created by Bryan Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino

Original Idea by the Toph/Sokka fan club (tophandsokkaclub . deviantart . com), please visit and vote in the contests.

This fanfiction not produced for profit

Avatar: The Last Airbender and related indicia are the property of Nickelodeon, Viacom and MTV Networks


End file.
